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Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Review: Master of the Opera - Jeffe Kennedy

Blurb from Act 1 - Passionate Overture:In the first tantalizing installment of Jeffe Kennedy's ravishing serial novel Master of the Opera, an innocent young woman is initiated into a sensual world of music, mystery, passion--and one man's private obsession. . .

Fresh out of college, Christine Davis is thrilled to begin a summer internship at the prestigious Sante Fe Opera House. But on her first day, she discovers that her dream job has a dark side. Beneath the theater, a sprawling maze of passageways are rumored to be haunted. Ghostly music echoes through the halls at night. And Christy's predecessor has mysteriously disappeared. Luckily, Christy finds a friend and admirer in Roman Sanclaro, the theater's wealthy and handsome patron. He convinces her there's nothing to fear--until she hears the phantom's voice for herself. Echoing in the labrynths. Singing of a lost love. Whispering her name: Christine.

At first, Christy thinks she's hearing things. But when a tall masked man steps out of the shadows--and into her arms--she knows he's not a phantom of her imagination. He is the master of her desire. . .

When I started this serialised novel I was expecting a dark and dirty retelling of Phantom of the Opera with added BDSM so I had high hopes and fully expected to love it. Unfortunately that isn't what I got and it turned into a weird and confusing mystical realism that included a bizaire orgy with incorporeal beings in the spirit realm! In all honesty it just got a little bit too weird for me and I came very close to not reading all 6 instalments.

It seemed to start out well and Christy seemed to be the right mix of naive and innocent but it didn't take long before she started to get on my nerves. There were so many times I just wanted to shake some sense into her and I ended up not caring about whether she was going to survive or not. The Master was deliciously creepy in the beginning but he remained too much of a mystery, we never really got to know him well enough for me to connect with his character so I didn't feel invested in what happened to him either.

It didn't help that I hated the other main character Roman, I know we weren't supposed to like him but his character was such a stereotypical controlling (bordering on abusive) boyfriend and I would have liked a bit more depth. I think that's my main issue with all of the characters really, we never really got to see below the surface and that meant I never fully engaged with them.

This isn't a bad story, in fact it has a lot of fantastic reviews so I'm in the minority for not loving it, I guess it just wasn't for me.